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Mt. Washington Hillclimb - I think I've lost my mind again


Cliff

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Sorry for the delay, while I was away I only had my tablet and no access to pics.  Then we got home late yesterday.

So, on August 20, 2016 I rode my bike to the top of Mt. Washington.

The day started out just perfect, the weather was a little cool, silly me, I put on a base layer.  That only made it to about mile 2.  The gearing I had on my bike was a single chainring at 22 and a cassette of 11-36.  It should have been more than enough to get me up.  I wanted to ride a little to warm up before the climb, but the top speed on this thing is 14 pedaling.  I rode up and down the street out front for about 5 miles and pulled in to the start right before my group.

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Me with my numbered helmet and time chipped bike, sadly saying goodbye to my wife.  She needed to drive to the top before the start.  The road is closed to cars during the ride.  Cool new jersey (silly base layer).

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Here's a pic from the start a few minutes before my group left.

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Sorry, no more pics until I get to the top, stopping to get nice photos was pretty far from my mind.

I'm a pretty open book, so most of you know I have significant bladder issues.  It makes being active really hard.  I only sleep 30 minutes to an hour at a time so I never feel rested before an event.  Sometimes the issue intensifies for a week or so, lucky me, this was the week.  The pain was pretty bad the day before and I had hoped that was the worst of it.  It wasn't.  The day of the ride was the worst for this cycle.  I stopped about 4 or 5 times to pee, by the time I got to the top I was peeing a fair amount of blood.  Being in pain like that made the ride a little harder.

So, anyhow, I hit climb and felt OK.  Heart rate went to around 160 - 175 and stayed there for the whole ride, I was hoping for a little lower as 170 is really my max for a short effort.  The first mile went well, by mile 2 I was pretty overheated so I took off the base layer.  Mile 3 through 5 were wearing me down.  I took a little breather around mile 4 and honestly thought of giving up.  It takes a lot to make me quit, but this hill is a lot.  I pushed on to mile 5 and hit the dirt part of the ride.  It's about a mile of really hard packed dirt, not much different than the road.  Sadly I walked this mile.  Not because it was dirt, but more because it was probably between 15 and 18% and nearly killing me.  While walking my bike my heart rate was 160, it was that hard for me.  What I found a little funny, was the swearing I heard from others.  There were a lot of dropped chains and even a couple of snapped chains.  There was no help on the hill, only at the very bottom before the start.  I've trained myself to never shift under pressure, I don't think everyone else did.

At mile 6 I got back on.  It was all downhill after this - if you think of 12 - 22% as downhill.  Since I was now at mile 6 and less than 2 miles from the finish, I could hear the crowds cheering people on.  This was very motivating.  Quitting was even less of an option now.  I tried my best to ride slow so I could finish.  After the ride my wife told me of people who just stopped at the final climb and fell over, gave up and walked or started crying.  I've been up this road before on foot so I knew what lie ahead.

The last 1/2 mile was not as flat as I remembered from the run.  I was beyond exhausted by this point.  Since I was so slow most of the other riders were already at the top, plus all of the people watching.  It's really hard to describe how supportive they all were, it honestly brings tears of joy to my eyes even now thinking of it.  When you start the final climb (22%) people are calling out your name (it's on your number) and telling you things like you got this, keep going, you can do it.  This was a really steep hill.

Here's a pic (from my wife) to show the crowd and the final part of the climb.

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Here's me at the flat part just before the finish line.

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Me with my blankey and participant medal.

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Me with my wicked pissa bike.

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Some pretty cool guy from Canada that we gave a ride down to.  He had no idea what to expect so he brought his bike with standard gearing.  He made it!

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So I finished.  The results are here.  My official time was 2:25:55, 502 out of 538 finishers.  Garmin moving time was 2:05.  Garmin file.  Not sure how many dropped out.  The rest of the pics are here.

Will I do it again next year, possibly.  If I do, it will be under the guidance of a coach who's only training goal is to get me to climb faster.

I want to thank my mechanic for setting my bike up so that I had 100% confidence I would not have a mechanical.  Most important, I thank my wife.  She is my biggest fan, supporter and cheerleader.  I love her more than she knows. 

 

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